I write this, as I sit outside a Starbucks with a flat white coffee and my Apple computer – a little self conscious of representing so many modern clichés. And even more so, since this Starbucks is on Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood? It is just along from the world-famous Comedy Store where the world’s greatest stand-up comics have cut their teeth and no doubt, struggled and been stared at.
Poignant also because I have sat outside this very Starbucks before. Readers of Eclipsed will recall my ill-fated trips to LA with my various film scripts. I recall sitting in the exact same chair (over 10 years ago) typing away with so much excitement. And here I am now – aware that these films did not get made and so I have an opportunity to reflect on this apparent failure?
Certainly, at that time, had someone explained to me that the next decade would come and go – without me ever hearing the seductive word ‘action’, let alone, ‘…and the Oscar goes to…’ then no doubt, I would have been very despondent. But now, not so. Maybe it’s some wisdom that comes with age? I certainly understand that I have absolutely no reason to be disconsolate. Much has happened in these intervening years that could never have been predicted nor planned for.
But how do I feel, that I am sitting in the very same Starbucks, and still working on one of these very same film scripts and about to complete the latest draft? I don’t know what number it is – but draft 100 doesn’t sound too outlandish.
Is this depressing?
Well, I suppose it could be but thankfully it isn’t.
I don’t really believe in fate but to a point, I do figure that things happen for a reason.
A saying has it that ‘you never fail until you quit’ and whilst perseverance is not always rewarded, the hope it creates is essential and its value can never be overestimated.
So here I am, still tapping away and still hoping.
But that said, this draft is so good! Seriously, this is the one and if I am sitting here in 2027…